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No more so than in the tactile world of books has the impact of the omnichannel presence been felt. The bookstore format has not only had to fight new channels to browse and buy books, but also ground breaking new media on which to transport, translate and digest the content itself. From Shelley to Shakespeare, Byron to Betjeman poetic injustice indeed.
However to every action a reaction, and Foyles has reacted by embracing and creating a literary third place, between the technological tedium of the workplace, and the socially connected chaos of the home; a place where time can be celebrated and cherished with a book, an exhibition, a conversation or a solitary moment in this world of the written word.
The new building is an architectural marvel, with is central atrium carving a cultural breath of fresh literal air through the many levels of laden shelving. Through the midst of material each floor forms a labyrinth for exploration and delight, dotted with bestseller displays, social oases, comfortable couches, exhibition spaces, communal cafes, the lure of a classic vinyl store for Jazz buffs, and a celebration of classical sheet music second to none.
For lovers of books the new Foyles heads straight to the heart.
VM-unleashed has have worked with a variety of brands and retailers helping to define the correct channel strategy, and best practice delivery within each channel.
For more information…
tim.radley@vm-unleashed.com
VM-unleashed monitors and celebrates best practice such as Foyles, to advise our clients and make then more profitable.
An antidote for a sterile sweet sector, Happy Pills combines a cute brand, acid whit, pristine packaging and a whole new perspective on pic ‘n’ mix. The passing pedestrian can see this is no ordinary offer, as the window decal lists its ingredients as Ho Ho Ho, I Love Barcelona and extract of John Cleese.
Making up the numbers is not what Happy does, rather growing its percentage of proud and loyal patrons spreading the word and passing the pills.
The formula is simple. Select one of a number of different sized capsules and fill it with your favourite things. Seal it with love and sticker it with a selection of novelty names, fondant fondnesses or seasonal greetings, to make it your very own personalised pharmasuckable.
As with all great things, the concept is simple. As with all successful things the subtlety of touch, the power of the proposition and the delivery of a distinct idea is what makes Happy Pills the first destination for a sugar coated cure for every condition.
We have worked with a variety of brand and retailers helping to define the brand proposition and then deliver it consistently across store and online channels, through product & packaging, display and customer service.
For more information…
tim.radley@vm-unleashed.com
VM-unleashed monitors and celebrates best practice such as Happy Pills, to advise our clients and make then more profitable.
In line with Inditex’s clothing concepts, Zara home combined eye catching image makers with a core assortment of products appropriate for most every taste. To this commercially heady concoction Zara has added authority and range, creating expansive coordinated collections with newness but not the unapproachable novelty often associated with it.
Against its blanket of trademark white, the subtlety of oranges, greens, blues and purples presents stunning assortments, combining a wider array of accessories from candles to coat hangers, vases to Venetian blinds.
Also gone is the confusion of multi-room coordination pitting bed against bath, living against kitchen, replaced by a new and comfortable natural order where every room can be gloriously coordinated or treated as an independent project.
With this clarity of concept, Zara Home now has a powerful purpose for its stylish offer, sure to attract the doubters of the past, welcoming them into its beautiful bright home.
We have worked with a variety of apparel and home fashion retailers creating assortment structures that drive commercial performance but which also protect and celebrate the unique creative USP of the brand. For more information…
VM-unleashed monitors and celebrates best practice such as Zara Home, to advise our clients and make then more profitable.
Just arrived on the Northern line, F is the new pop-up store from French Connection., tapping into the trendy clientele commuting from city central. F has taken up residence for seven months, shunting its newest fashions through the festive frenzy with an opportunity to extend should the spring sunshine be generous and favourable to this adventurous arrival.
F is a hybrid shop. It includes a small ladies wear edit collection in its hundred square metres or so, but strategically acts as a collection point for its express ordering service. Whether bought online or in-store French Connection promises to deliver into store for pick-up by five pm the same day, literally allowing customers to arrive as one person and depart back to suburbia fully fashion refreshed.
The F store is part of a wider trend to use transport hubs for ordering and collecting everything from apples and pears to denim skinnies and fashionable flairs. No longer the inconvenience of home delivery, but the lifestyle luxury of never missing a step, or loosing your strides, in the high speed roll-out of Omni-channel opportunities.
Never an F word spoken, as cool convenience panders to the time paucity of the workforce movers, and French Connection plays to the plaudits and pockets the price indifference.
VM-unleashed monitors and celebrates best practice such as F by French Connection, to advise our clients and make then more profitable.
We have recently worked with one of the world’s most recogniseable automotive brands on a multi-channel strategy to sell and collect merchandise linking online with retail stores.
However lifestyle changes and a move towards the evolution of an intimate third place for women have resulted in a more common and strategic crossing of paths, with not only shared store space but a single and a more powerful customer proposition.
Celebrating the home as a private space, a place for leisure, relaxation and contemplation the advent and evolution of loungewear, homewear, resort wear, crossing the boundaries between nightwear and outerwear has brought together the warmth and comfort of knitwear, cashmeres and loose cottons with the indulgence of intimate accessories.
In the wake of this gentle revolution the emotional walls between assortment categorisation, and the physical walls of shop departmental planning have both come tumbling down.
Monsoon’s modernised spaces are open and inviting leading the customer from seasonal sweaters and winter warmth through an embracing central sanctuary of ever-present softness to the final temptation of accessories heaven, in a journey as seamless as the passing hours of a perfect day.
VM-unleashed constantly monitors best practice such as Monsoon and Accessorize, to provide the most up to date and best practice guidance for its clients.
Tiger has been slowly prowling the streets of the world for a while, with its irresistible proposition of impulse product, low prices and beautiful, attractive designs.
Come with us to its first central London store…
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Tiger, with its impulse offer and low prices, is thriving and turning up not only in secondary locations and low-rent backwaters but on some of the most expensive streets in London. After a trial in Tottenham Court Road, the Danish destination has opened its doors on Oxford Street, rubbing shoulders with value giants such as Primark and Sports Direct.
Rather than changing its spots, Tiger is earning its stripes converting the passing pedestrian in huge numbers, filling their baskets to overflowing with everything from drawing pins to rolling pins, toilet to paint brushes, dried spices to coconut ices.
But this stalker of the unsuspecting is no stranger to breaking convention, creating impulse assortment, creaming the easy sales, unburdened by the necessity to create unwieldy assortment widths, chasing choice that the modern shopper cannot cope with.
In common with cross-sector stars such as Lidl and Aldi buying narrow but buying smart is a formula that works both far and wide.
Monki is a philosophy for life and style, brought to life, through conceptual store design, that encourages the individual to be – individual, true to themselves and not afraid to express their values through fashion.
Carnaby Street is the latest Monki incarnation based on an undersea world of decaying wrecks, sunken carousels, barnacled rigging, giant jellyfish and a myriad of underwater embellishments.
